Brian McDermott has finally sat down and watched Reading’s play-off final defeat to Swansea City – almost a year after their Wembley heartache.

The Royals manager recorded last season’s 4-2 loss, but had never dared watch it, until now.

However, all the pain from May 31 at the home of football has been flushed away with the exhilarating euphoria of winning the Championship and returning to the Premier League in style.

“It was really good for me to sit down and watch it and in a way it was actually quite therapeutic for me and I learnt a lot from it,” confessed the 51-year-old boss who was named the League Managers’ Association Championship manager-of-the-year on Monday.

“I think for the first 20 minutes we were the better side, but we made a mistake and that cost us.

“We were terrific in the way that our players kept on playing. They always tried to do the right things, but I think everything that could have gone wrong did.

“The attitude of the players’ was brilliant and the support when we got back to 3-2 was amazing.

"We’ve come through that all now and I’m delighted that we didn’t have to go back to Wembley again.”